@Spinward Flow, that is something in line with an idea I've been considering. A planet where starships are not permitted to land. Small craft are okay but most cargos are handled through the orbital port. Now put the players in the situation of having a cargo that had to be taken down. Complication is shortage of available craft, work stoppage by pilots or stevedores. It could be interesting.
You basically wind up with a "trade barrier" to the free flow of commercial goods (and presumably, passengers as well). Commerce still flows "just fine" (given time) ... but there is what amounts to a "trade friction" point when getting goods and passengers moved through the starport. In effect, you get a very "hard" trade border boundary between the local economy and the interstellar one, so as to keep the two segregated from each other. Very much the antithesis of free trade by enabling all kind of protectionist distortions favoring local producers over foreign imports.
I can can citef multiple examples of this kind of economic/political thinking in the real world, usually involving "walls" and a "fortress mentality" behind them, often with the notion of "exceptionalism" getting blended into the mix along with a variety of superiority complexes ... but I'm thinking that discussion of such topical matters belongs in
The Pit (in multiple senses of the term
![Cautious :cautious: :cautious:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
) mainly due to the motives of SELFISHNESS and GREED that are often times the animating forces behind such policy choices.
However, for the purposes of our discussion here around organization of starport logistics regarding surface to orbit transfers ... the main question comes down to whether or not a mainworld operates its trade on a "moat, drawbridge, portcullis, gatehouse to postern gate" basis in order to strictly control a customs border between a local market economy and the wider interstellar economy (to use castle fortification terminology).
And yes, that kind of "trade friction at the border" does introduce all kinds of ... complications ... to the smooth free flow of goods and passengers that can be incorporated into a variety of adventure hooks and scenarios.
One of the fun side effects of such a policy is that ocean water becomes "unavailable" for wilderness refueling (for example).
![Unsure :unsure: :unsure:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
At that point, a starship that wants "free fuel" either needs to transit to a gas giant to skim for it (which depending on orbital ephemera could take "too long" to be worth the effort, particularly with low power maneuver drives), assuming the star system even has a gas giant in it ... or ... starship operators are "obliged" to purchase fuel (unrefined minimum) from the highport, since transits to the surface are Not Permitted to interstellar craft.
For the locals, that one single Rule Change then allows them to effectively monetize and profit from SELLING OCEAN WATER to interstellar starships. Sure, if the stuff remains unrefined you can only sell that ocean water for Cr100 per ton brought up from surface to orbit ... but you can do that with an unarmed small craft (meaning minimal initial capital investment). The economics works out to something where the small craft can essentially "pay for itself" in just ocean water deliveries from a minority share of the Cr100 per ton earned by selling ocean water (unrefined) through the starport, simply due to the short distance and turn around times involved, leading to potentially large delivery volumes over time (we make it up in volume!) to meet the demand for fuel.
Extra bonus points for building a fuel refining operation at the highport to take those ocean water deliveries and turn them into refined fuel for starships that sells for Cr500 per ton at the starport!
Can you say CASH COW?
And that entire money grab "goes away" if streamlined starships are permitted to water land on the ocean and wilderness refuel "for free" instead of paying for the privilege (and jobs) associated with forcing starships to buy fuel from the starport instead.
Like I said, there's all kinds of little knock on effects and details that nibble around the edges of a more xeno-antagonistic border policy with respect to starport operations, parricularly highports in orbit. And you had better believe that local government and laws will be funding
COACC operations to prevent "interlopers" from bypassing starport security and the customs border in order to access the mainworld directly.
![Pilot :pilot: 🧑✈️](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f9d1-2708.png)